ANALYSIS OF SPECIES COMPOSITION AND SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF PARKS AND GARDENS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Examining the flora of Europe from the point of view of approaches and methods of park and garden practice Great Britain was chosen as an example, being the country which is known for its gardening traditions and which has influenced immensely decorative gardening of Europe. English landscape gardens and parks of the 18 and the beginning of the 19 centuries have entered history as an independent style of park and garden art. This research aims at understanding why in the conditions of rather poor local flora English landscape parks and small private gardens have become a bright and original part of the world park and garden art. According to the Botanical society of the British Isles the cultural flora of Great Britain embraces 3000 decorative plants, which amounts to 9.8%. Only 35.6% of this number represent British flora, i.e. from the general number of species the share of woody plants makes up less than 3.5% of all cultural flora of the British Isles. A significant part of modern woody plants is secondary and, as a rule, consists of artificial plantations. Meadows, heaths and swampland occupy great areas. At present most forests can be found in the east of Great Britain and in the South-East of Ireland. The obtained data indicate that Great Britain for a long period of time (approximately 300 years) introduced a number of Chinese plants species in their gardens that can be compared to the species diversity of local flora (only woody plants are meant here). It is also explained by the similarity of natural climatic factors allowing Great Britain, washed by the Gulf Stream, to grow many species of southern plants easily. We singled out four storeys in the structure of garden plantations in Great Britain: three woody and a shrubby one. The structure is dominated by shrubs - more than 60% of the species, which is justified by both environmental factors and ethnic and cultural traditions. The first woody storey consists of those species whose height is over 20 m (birch-trees, elms, beeches, pines, oaks, poplars, lime trees) - all in all 46 species from 20 up to 30 m high. The second storey is represented by the species whose height is between 10 and 19 m (willows, pear trees, apple trees, maples and some plum trees) - all in all 36 species. The third storey in gardens includes those species whose height is from 5 to 9 m. These are both small trees and high shrubs, such as tamarix, mountain ash, elder, rhododendron, pear tree, apple tree and shadbush - 56 species. The shrub storey is represented by the species whose height is less than 4 m, there being 156 species under study. It appears that more than a half (52.9%) species of woody plants in gardens of Great Britain are shrubs. There can be two reasons for this. First, ecological conditions: insufficient depth of fertile layer necessary for a significant number of long-boled trees growing on a limited territory of a garden due to the specific character of geological composition of the British Isles. Second, owing to the existing ethnic and cultural traditions the population has always been inclined towards natural colouristic effects, which, in its turn, is conditioned by the lack of sunny days a year.

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